2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Research of a Functional and Typological Meaning of the Constructions with Auxiliary and Functional Verbs in Modern German
| Project/Area Number |
16520242
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Linguistics
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| Research Institution | Kobe University |
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Principal Investigator |
YUASA Hideo Kobe University, Faculty of Cross-Cultural Studies, Professor, 国際文化学部, 教授 (00136285)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2006
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| Keywords | German / Japanese / Auxiliary Verb / Perfect / Grammaticalization / Topic / Functional Verb / Typology |
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| Research Abstract |
The results of my research are summarized as follows: According to Haider (1984) the German verb "bekommen" in the construction "S+bekommen+0+Past Participle" still have the lexical meaning "get", while Reis (1985) insists that the verb "bekommen" has lost such a lexical meaning as "get" and that it is regarded as a pure functional verb which is used for a sort of passive. The final concept "parasitical verb" which Haider has proposed for a verb like "bekommen" reflects a process of the grammaticalization of the verb "bekommen". Verbal forms as a past participle in the above-mentioned construction are located at the final position of a sentence, what means that the German has the typological tendency to become a topic-prominent language (Li / Thompson 1976). The perfect of the German is based upon the historical process that the direct object of the verb "haben" becomes emptied. It also contributes to the topic-prominent character of the German. In addition to "bekommen"-passive and perfect the German constrctions with a functional verb like・"bringen" or "kommen" show that a verbal component like nouns of action (nomen actionis) is situated at the end of a sentence. From these grammatical phenomena of the German a tendency toward a topic-prominent language is recognized. If the constructions with a functional verb are compared with the Japanese sentences, those have no grammatical position which corresponds to a Japanese adverb, because an attributive adjective to the nouns of action is almost prohibited. A German verb is in principle poorly modified in comparison with a Japanese verb which shows a preference for adverbs.
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